Lighter



Nov. 10, 1931. J. B. STERN ET AL 1,830,965

LIGHTER Filed Jan. 25. 1929 gnoemtozs JEROME s. STERN BERNARD s. FRANKLIN Patented Nov. 10, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE monn a-s'rm m immman s. swarm, or new roan, n. Y.

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Application fled January 25, 1929. Serial Io. 884,878.

This invention relates to lighters, and more particularly to a method an means for fueling flint-spark lighters.

A popular type of pocket and table lighter,

for smokers, is a lighter having a fuel reservoir, preferably containing absorbent material for holding benzine, gasoline, alcohol, or other volatile fuel, a wick projecting out of the reservoir, and a flint-sparking mechanism for igniting the wick. Such a lighter is refueled by inverting it, removin a screw plug from its bottom, and trans erring a quantity of fuel throu h the resulting opening b means of a me icine dropper or similar device. To lessen this difficulty s ecial cans of fuel have been marketed, designed somewhat like an oil can, but these add greatly to the expense of the fuel, and are not nearly so commonly available as are the more usual fuels. a

In our copending application Serial Number 334,877, filed concurrently herewith, we have described a self filling lighter arranged to suck fuel upwards from an open body of fuel by varying the effective internal volume of the lighter. This was done by providing an auxiliary chamber of variable volume in communication with a fuel reservoir of fixed volume. The auxiliary chamber takes up room which might otherwise form a useful part of the fuel reservoir.

The primary object of our present invention is to provide a method and means for filling a lighter without using extra space for an auxiliary pum chamber. The method includes connecting the fuel reservoir of the lighter with an open body of the fuel, and varying the volume of the fuel reservoir itself in order to suck fuel therein.

To provide a fuel reservoir of variable volume is a further object of our invention, to do which we equip the reservoir with a resiliently yieldable side. More specifically,

we employ two opposite sides which are annular corrugated in order to make them 'resiliently yieldable to hand pressure.

To facilitate connecting the fuel reservoir with a body of fuel we combine with the reservoir already described a suction pipe, which, to enable it to be put out of the way when not in use, is referably pivoted to the lighter, and provi ed with resilient means for causing it to position itself either substantially parallel to the lighter, or substantially perpendicular thereto. To prevent evaporation, means are provided for closing an end of the pipe when it is in the parallel or out of use osition.

A further 0 ject of our invention is to provide a pumpmg arrangement ermitting successive charges of fuel to be awn into the lighter, if needed, without necessitating suction and discharge valves, such as are employed 1n an ordinary pump. To do this we take advantage ofthe fact that these 1i hters 'ordinarily do not contain free liquid el, but are arranged with absorbent fuel holding material which is merely saturated with the fuel to practice the following method we connect the lighter with an open body of the fuel, and thereafter increase the volume of the fuel reservoir of; the lighter in order to suck fuel into contact with the absorbent material, repeating this operation until the absorbent material is fully saturated, and, if desired, finally reducing the reservoir volume to discharge any excess fuel. The absorptive property of the absorbent fuel holding material is utllized to replace suction and discharge valves. Of course, the displacement may be so designed that a single charge of fuel will ordinarily serve to saturate the absorbent material, but it is convenient to be able to repeat the operation, if necessary to obtain full. saturation.

Our invention is described more in detail in the following specification, which is accompanied by drawings in which Figure 1 is a partially sectioned elevation of a form of our invention employing a bottom suction pipe; Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 in Figure 1; Figure 3 is an elevation of a preferred modification employing a combined wick cap arm and suction plpe; and Figure 4 is a detail of the arrangement shown in Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 1 it will be seen that there is a lighter having wick and sparking mechanism of conventional form. The lighter is provided with a recessed bottom 2, providing a space in which a suction pipe 4 is concealed. The suction pipe'4- is connected to a square member 6, WlllCh is threaded on a pipe elbow 8, the thread therebetween permitting the desired rotational movement of the suction pipe 4. A spring 10, hearing against the square member 6, insures that the suction pipe will lie either substantially parallel to the lighter, and against a seat 12, to prevent evaporation, or substantially perpendicular to the lighter, when used for fill- 1n Ihe sides of the lighter are annularly corrugated, as is indicated by the rings 14, and

- thereby are made resiliently yieldable to hand pressure, so that the internal volume of the fuel chamber may be varied to suck fuel into the reservoir.

Figure 2 is a section taken on the line 2-2 in Figure 1. In this figure it will be clearly seen how the walls of the lighter are corrugated, to make them resiliently yieldable to hand pressure, the structure being, in this respect, similar to the yieldable surface of a typical aneroid barometer.

Figure 3 illustrates a modification in which the special suction pipe and recessed bottom therefor are dispensed with by utilizing the wick cap arm 20 also as a suction pipe, an improvement which is described in a copending application of Albert M. Franklin, Serial Number 334,880, filed concurrently herewith.

As before, the suction pipe 20 is fixed to a square member 26, shown in-greater detail in Figure 4, against which a spring 30 bears, closing the wick cap against its seat to prevent free evaporation of fuel. The square member 26 is threaded to a pipe elbow 28, which leads into the fuel reservoir.

In either lighter the customary manual filling plug 16 is provided, in order to permit the wick and absorbent material to be inserted in the lighter, and to carry spare flints.

To refuel the lighter it is merely necessary to raise the wick cap arm 20, invert the lighter, immerse the wick cap in an open body of the fuel, compress the sides of the lighter either before or after the immersion, and release the sides after the immersion in order to suck fuel into the fuel reservoir and into contact with the absorbent material, which takes it up.

If the lighter has become completely dried out the fuel charge needed to saturate the lighter may exceed the displacement of its yieldable sides. We recognize that it is quite feasible to provide a suction valve at the suction pipe, and an air discharge valve at the opposite side of the lighter, to permit repeated pumping. However, we consider the much simpler illustrated arrangement to be preferable because with the usual lighter construction it is anyway desirable that there be no free liquid in the fuel reservoir which might leak out of the wick tip, filling plug, or suction pipe, and soil the hand and clothing of the user. Fuel in excess of saturation being undesirable, the absorptive property of the fuel holding material may itself be taken advantage of to act as a form of suction and discharge valve, for fuel brought into contact with the absorbent material will beheld, and if insufficient, the filling operation may be repeated until full saturation is obtained. The lighter may be finally squeezed to dischar a any excess liquid, thereby insuring that t e absorbent material, while fully saturated, is not immersed in free liquid.

We claim:

1. The combination with a lighter of a fuel reservoir containing absorbent fuel holdin material, and a suction pi e of substantia length movably attached t ereto so that it may be moved between an operative position projecting from the reservoir and an inoperative position not projecting from the reservoir for connecting the reservoir with an.

open body of the fuel, said reservoir having a variable volume to enable it to suck fuel into contact with the absorbent material to saturate it.

2. A self filling lighter comprising a single fuel reservoir containing absorbent fuel holding material and having a resiliently yieldable side, and a suction pipe for connecting the reservoir with an open body of the fuel, so that movement of the side sucks fuel directly into contact with the absorbent material.

3. A self filling lighter comprisin a single fuel reservoir containing absorbent el holding material and having resiliently yieldable opposite sides, and a suction pipe for connecting the reservoir with an open body of the fuel, so that movement of the side sucks fuel directly into contact with the absorbent material.

4. A self filling lighter comprising a fuel reservoir having resiliently yieldable o posite sides, a suction pipe pivoted to the lig ter, resilient means for causing said pipe to position itself either substantially parallel to the lighter or substantially perpendicular thereto, and means for closing an end of the pipe when it is in the parallel position.

5. A self filling lighter comprisin a fuel reservoir the main opposite sides 0 which are annularly corrugated in order to make them resiliently yieldable to hand pressure, and a suction pipe for connecting the reservoir with an open body of the fuel.

6. A self filling lighter comprising a fuel reservoir containing absorbent fuel holding material, and a suction pipe for connecting the reservoir with an open body of the fuel, said reservoir having mainopposite sides which are annularly corrugated in order to make them resiliently yieldable to hand pressure to enable the reservoir to suck fuel into ate it.

7. A self filling lighter comprising a suction pipe pivoted thereto, resilient means for causing said pipe to position itself either substantially parallel to the lighter or substantially perpendicular thereto, and means for closing an end of the pipe when it is in the parallel position.

8. The combination with a lighter of an in take tube of substantial length for facilitating refueling thereof pivotally afiixed there- JEROME B. STERN. BERNARD S. FRANKLIN. 

